Two thousand ETFs

By Kurt Brouwer

I saw this chart in a piece in the Economist and thought it did a great job of showing what is going on in the world of exchange traded funds. First, it shows that the absolute number of ETFs is growing rapidly. Second, that overall assets in ETFs are growing too.

By the way, if you missed the meaning of the headline on the chart, ‘Let two thousand ETFs bloom’ is a rather cutesy reference — too cute in my opinion — to a quotation from Chinese dictator, Chairman Mao, who said in 1957:

“Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting progress in the arts and the sciences and a flourishing socialist culture in our land.”

The reason I write that it was too cute is that, as the web site, The Phrase Finder, points out, ‘…many of those who put forward views that were unwelcome to Mao were executed…’ Harrumph.

About Fundmastery Blog

Kurt Brouwer is a fee-only financial advisor with three decades of experience. He is the chairman and co-founder of Brouwer & Janachowski, LLC. Kurt has written books, articles and hundreds of blog posts on mutual funds, ETFs and other investment topics. E-mail: kurt.brouwer *at* gmail.com.